What do dueling crises reveal about American exceptionalism?

When President Ronald Reagan left office, he defined America as a “shining city on a hill,” a country that other nations would look to as a model of prosperity and freedom. Reagan, like many other presidents and politicians, lauded the country for its “American exceptionalism,” the set of beliefs that the country’s history, values and politics make it distinct and worthy of respect and leadership on the world stage.

But amid dueling crises — the coronavirus pandemic and the racial reckoning — belief in American exceptionalism has been deeply shaken. A staggering 62 percent of Americans no longer see their country as the “shining city on a hill” that Reagan once imagined, a Yahoo News/YouGov poll revealed. Outside the U.S., Europeans’ trust in America has also deteriorated, according to a European Council on Foreign Relations poll.

Americans are facing the highest coronavirus case count and death toll in the world, a lack of national pandemic strategy and a financial crisis, while grappling with the country’s dark racial legacy. Doctors lack proper personal protective equipment, governors have been left to handle their states’ responses without much aid from the federal government, and hospitals in multiple states have been overwhelmed to the point of having no ICU beds. The pandemic’s effects on health and unemployment have hit communities of color the hardest, especially Black, Latino and Native American populations. And months into the crisis, Americans marched for racial justice as the protests against the police killings of Black Americans became what may be the largest protest movement in the history of the country.